Yolandi Visser Quotes

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

If you have something you do that's unique, you just end up in situations. Your art can take you to places without you working too hard to force something to happen.

A lot of people forget how important it is to be creative. We get caught up in getting ahead and in day-to-day minutiae. But creativity is a fundamental mode of expression, as is being tenacious and standing by your own convictions and passions, even if it's not the 'popular' choice.

A lot of people probably get the idea that I'm this extremely calculated kind of guy, and in a lot of ways, I am. But when it comes to music or artistic expression, I'm very uncalculated and do things very spontaneous. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't want to do this anymore. I can't just play the same thing over and over; it would drive me crazy.

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.

I love the freedom to do whatever I want with style and not be put into a box.

These 'mistakes' occur in my books for a reason. I have an agenda: I'm secretly trying to inspire kids to create their own stories and comics, and I don't want them to feel stifled by 'perfectionism.'

No thesaurus can give you those words, no rhyming dictionary. They must happen out of you.

The downside of videos is that it will put my vision in front of other people, so they might not get the chance to create their own.

For me, it would be pointless to write a novel that I knew I could complete within a specific length of time. I could do that only by repeating something I had done before, and I've never wanted to do that.

I wanted each of my books to be very different from the others, each to be special and uncategorizable, and I knew I could only do that a few times before I was in danger of repeating myself.

I just do what I think is funny and what's exciting to me.

I love Lady Gaga. She's not afraid to take risks and be herself.

I write songs, and I sing them. I never formulated a plan; I can't tell anyone else how to do this. But it feels right, so I just kind of enjoy it and get on with it.

Even if we're not doing anything wrong, there are certain things we want to do that we don't think can withstand the scrutinizing eye of other people. And those are often the most important things that we do. The things we do when other people are watching are things that are conformist, obedient, normal, and unnotable.

To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.

I would probably work with Drake as he is massively inspirational to me as a writer as well as an artist. If not him, then Susan Boyle!

I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements.

It's been fun. I've had a lucky life. Art has made me pull the best out of myself.

I'm never worried about being upstaged. I love to have the best, most individual people come in and see if we hit on something.

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.

I wanted to be that quirky girl who writes funny songs that still have meaning.

But now I realize that this record business really needs me. No one else is trying to take a chance or do something different.

Art, it seems to me, doesn't need freedom so much as it needs courage and love - some would call it 'soul' or 'Eros.'

The freedom of every artist is essential.